AUGUSTA, Ga. – The Flagler College softball team earned the No. 5 seed in this weekend's Peach Belt Conference Tournament at Cougar Field in Columbus, Georgia. The Saints take on the No. 4-seed Lander University on Friday at 5 p.m.
The tournament format in new this year as the two top seeds host four-team double-elimination mini tournaments. The winners of those two brackets will meet in a best-of-three championship series at the highest remaining seed. The top two seeds are No. 1 Columbus State University and No. 2 University of North Georgia. Those two teams finished in a tie for first place at 24-3, but Columbus State won the tiebreaker after having won two-of-three earlier this season at North Georgia.
Flagler (18-31 overall, 13-14 Peach Belt) hosted Lander earlier this season, but lost two-of-three to the Bearcats. The Saints lead the all-time series 16-13 and have only met once in the conference tournament, and that was a 5-0 loss on April 16, 2010 at Florence, South Carolina.
In the series this against Lander,
Cassidy Crump batted a sizzling .727 as she was 8-of-11 at the plate with a double, triple, a home run, had two runs batted in, and scored three runs.
Trinity Fry hit .500 as she collected three singles while
Paige Maseda hit .364 with a double, home run, three RBI, and three runs scored.
Madelyn Wise recorded the lone win the circle in two appearances.
Crump leads the Saints in hitting (.358), slugging (.530), on-base (.428), RBI (27), and stolen bases (12). She is tied for the team lead in hits (48) and doubles (6). Maseda is hitting .300 with a team-best 31 runs scored and is tied with Crump with 48 hits. She is second on the team with home runs (6), RBI (21), and is a perfect 11-of-11 in stolen bases. Wise has made 25 appearances in the circle and has 4-5 record with three saves and a 3.00 earned run average.
Lander (27-16, 16-11) had five batters that hit .300 or better in the series vs. Flagler. Emily Allen led the way with a .583 batting average as she had seven hits, including a double and a triple, and she drove in a team-high six runs. Gracie Derrick hit .500 and hit a triple and a home run. Saje Jones hit six singles and batted .500 while Naya Jones hit .429. Abbie Behe hit .300. Bailey Pattison was the most effective pitcher for Lander against Flagler. She went the distance and allowed one earned run on eight hits. She fanned six batters.
For the season, Behe and Allen are both hitting .382. Behe leads the club with 52 hits, 12 doubles, and 35 RBI. Barbara Cook and Logan Coward both have hit eight home runs. Jones is a perfect 16-for-16 in stolen bases. In the circle,
Taylor Scott has a staff-best 2.97 ERA and is 15-5 with four shutouts.
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